Today was a good shoot, even though some things didn't go exactly as planned.

Last night, a storm front moved through the area. Fortunately, the rain was light, and when I arrived at the park about half an hour before the shoot, the courtyard was already dry. I quickly unloaded the archway pieces, and assembled it as planned in the center of the courtyard. As I went back to the car for the cameras, I heard a rush of wind, and the archway tumbled to the ground. I returned with the camera on the tripod, and reset the archway. It stood for a minute or two before another rush of wind felled it.

Director Doug Harper arrived, and after another try that resulted in tumbling archway pieces, we realized that we needed an alternate plan. We quickly surveyed the area for an alternative. The courtyard has entrances on each side, which just happen to be archways of the kind I intended to use in the center of the courtyard.

So we opted to use the North archway and filmed the vignette using it as the archway of the story. Filming went well, Doug directed the actors (Richard Thornton and Hannah Ruiz) while I served as cameraman and director of photography. And we wrapped at 3:15pm or so.

The episode is going to be challenging for the Visual Effects Artist. Our green screen (a lime green sheet) was too small for the new entranceway. So we're going to have to rely on someone to rotoscope the archway face (a granite wall with a inscribed medallion) onto some of the scenes. Suggestions would be welcome.

I'll be posting a couple of pictures of the cast in "Charlie's Angel" mode to the Project: Potemkin website shortly.

Just a quick update on the state of things. "The Void" is being edited by Tom Scott, and all Jon Carling's wonderful VFX shots have been completed, along with the opening credits sequence. We've looking like we're shooting for a mid-May to early-June released.

The following vignette, "Doctor's Orders," is practically complete. It's being scored by Tony Lunn. Once we add a few control panel animations and mix in the score with the new bridge chatter sound effects (created by Bill Walker and a large team of actors and actresses), it'll be ready to go.

"Delivery" follows that episode. It's currently being edited by Rick Foxx who did a fantastic job with "Doctor's Orders." Steve Gallant will be doing the music (and the alien voice), and again with control panel animation and bridge chatter sound effects, it'll be ready to go.

It updates the status of all remaining eight productions of our first season, includes a few pictures of our current bridge revamping, and basically gets you caught up to date on the production, including our projected release dates. We also address the forthcoming "The Night the Stars Fell from the Sky."

This Wednesday, May 18th, Van Buchanan and Randy Landers will be making repairs and modifications to the bridge railing. Progress on the bridge's face lift has been substantial with only the railing and the Engineering station remaining on the "To Do" list. Van will also be given the task of trimming a balsa wood block so that it can be used for our hypospray prop for the upcoming Sickbay episode, "The Lucky One."

This Saturday, May 21st, Jeff Green and Randy Landers will be meeting with the potential guests for "The Night the Stars Fell from the Sky" at the Radium Springs park we've selected for the location for this episode. We'll be issuing scripts at that time, discussing the roles that they'll be playing, and taking measurements for our costumer. Afterwards, Jeff and Randy will review the locations to be filmed for the production, planning out camera angles and generally preparing for Sunday's shoot.

This Sunday, May 22nd, Jeff Green, Blaire Erskine, and Bethany Carver will don their uniforms for the first official shoot for "Night." We'll be filming some exploratory scenes, take a few reaction shots. Also on hand will be Randy Landers, Doug Harper and a few others to help with the shoot. Filming can only take place between 1pm - 4pm due to the park hours.

On Saturday, July 9th, we'll be filming "The Devil in the Details," a tribute vignette to the late Robert Bloch. This episode will feature a couple of special guest stars, and a landing party enjoying Shore Leave in a Klingon bar!

Renda Carr will be representing Project: Potemkin and other fanfilms on a panel at Play on Con in Birmingham, Alabama, July 29th - August 1st 2011.

Otherwise, we're still working on the edit for "The Void" and hope to have it available in the coming weeks! Keep your fingers crossed! We're trying to complete it in time for a June release.

Met with William Searcy and Eric Holt, both local actors, today at Radium Springs Garden along with Jeff Green. William will be playing "Paral" and Eric will be playing "Kalv" in the upcoming episode, "The Night the Stars Fell from the Sky," written by David Eversole. In addition to meeting the two actors, Jeff and I scouted the location. It's going to be a challenge because of the lighting, but it's definitely a good location.

Filming begins tomorrow, 1pm-4pm, with Blaire "Allen" Erskine and Bethany "T'Nabi" Carver at the Radium Springs Garden. Jeff, Doug Harper and a few others will be on hand to help with the production. Going to be a challenge with the lighting shooting on a wooded path, but we're hoping to get a scene on p. 14 with the ladies in the can by the end of the shoot.

Due to food poisoning suffered by one of the two cast members, we were unable to film today, but I did meet again with Jeff Green, William Searcy and Doug Harper. We discussed the proposed shooting schedule. In order to beat the heat at the park, we're going to be filming early (no later than 9am) until noon (at the latest). By doing so, and filming Friday and Saturday mornings, and an occasional Sunday shoot, we should be finished primary shooting on "The Night the Stars Fell from the Sky" by the middle of July.

Also, today, Tony Lunn has finished the score on "Doctor's Orders" and we should be finishing up that vignette soon, possibly in time for a convention or two this summer.

We also will be filming "The Devil in the Details" on July 9th, from 1pm - 4pm. Details will be announced shortly.

Lastly, the props we've needed for our sickbay shoot will be ready by Wednesday and sent to Renda and Tim Carr for their shoot. Hopefully their episode will be shot concurrently while we film "The Night."

Due to food poisoning suffered by one of the two cast members, we were unable to film today, but I did meet again with Jeff Green, William Searcy and Doug Harper. We discussed the proposed shooting schedule. In order to beat the heat at the park, we're going to be filming early (no later than 9am) until noon (at the latest). By doing so, and filming Friday and Saturday mornings, and an occasional Sunday shoot, we should be finished primary shooting on "The Night the Stars Fell from the Sky" by the middle of July.

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Couldn't you have just changed the name of the short to "the Day my Lunch Fell From my Mouth" and kept your shooting schedule?

Today, I'm working on solidifying the production schedule, confirming with Jeff Green at Georgia Southwestern the folks who've volunteered and contributed to Project: Potemkin in addition to the work his students and those from Darton College have done. It's quite a list!

Tonight I'm going to finish the props for "The Lucky One" and reupholster the bridge railing from where it was repaired last week. Van did some wonderful repair work. They're no longer wild (movable), but they'll withstand additional weight when leaning on them.

We have a corridor that runs along behind the bridge from the captain's ready room on the starboard side to the docking port that is accessed from the port side. The heads are on the port side off this corridor as well. We opted not to put the food processor out on the bridge set at this time, but can be accessed out the back of the bridge.

...the Servitor panel (we're still debating that one--does one have a coffee and danish machine on the bridge?)...

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Just my 2 cents, Every Fed ship I design has a small food processor/replicator on the bridge. It just makes sense.
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just the sovereign and defiant. the intrepid had theirs in the conference room. the galaxy's in the ready room. TMP era ships did not, but the excelsior had a coffee table but only to hide the hydraulics used to shake the sets

I will be sending Jeff the schedule tonight for his approval and review.

In addition to the filming of "The Night" on location, we'll have one evening of shooting on the bridge set. OR if it looks to rain out a day's shoot, we could move to the bridge set for the day. For this, we'll need Stephanie Burke, Doug Harper as well as the Potemkin landing party.

And if that's not enough, we'll be shooting "The Devil in the Details" on July 9th at One Trick Pony here in Albany. I've scheduled the bar, and while we'll be filming in the AM at Radium Park, we'll be hosting food and softdrinks for everyone at the bar. This shoot is one of those that's going to take a couple of hours at most, and everyone will be invited to attend. This episode will focus on Mario Pagan, G. Douglas Harper, Eric Moore, Stephanie Burke and our two guest stars, one of whom is John L. who will be a Klingon Bartender, and another who will play a rather unique visitor to the bar. If scheduling looks to be tight, we'll forego filming at the park that morning.

Tommy Scott, who had been editing "The Void," has withdrawn from this project. We expect the raw video to be returned to us shortly. Once back in our hands, I'm going to opt to pursue another editor to handle this episode or may even edit it myself with the assistance of some local folks. I'm aware that this delay has frustrated many of you (especially the cast members), and while I expect to spend Friday and Saturday mornings filming "The Night the Stars Fell from the Sky," I will work diligently on completing "The Void" by the end of June, once the footage is returned. Please accept my apologies for the delay, and rest assured that once the footage is back in my hands, it will be the focus of my entire available time.

It's nine videotapes, about 45-60 mins per tape. I haven't received them back yet, but will let you know. I appreciate the offer of assistance, but I won't know how many gigs until I get back the tapes from Tom.